Trump names Goldman president Cohn as his top economic advisor

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Monday picked Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn as his Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and director of the National Economic Council (NEC).

As the top economic advisor, Cohn "will help craft economic policies that will grow wages for our workers, stop the exodus of jobs overseas and create many great new opportunities for Americans who have been struggling," Trump said in a statement.

Besides working out economic policies for the President-elect, Cohn will also work closely with Trump's economic team at the Treasury and Commerce Departments.

Cohn, 56, has spent more than 25 years at Goldman Sachs. He now serves as the president of the investment bank.

"I share President-elect Trump's vision of making sure every American worker has a secure place in a thriving economy, and we will be completely committed to building a nation of strength, growth and prosperity," Cohn said on Monday. Cohn' s nomination doesn' t need confirmation from the Congress.

Cohn is not the first person with ties to Goldman Sachs to be selected to be part of Trump's administration. Trump's treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin and White House adviser Steve Bannon had also worked at Goldman.

While Trump repeatedly attacked Goldman and other Wall Street banks on the campaign trail, he has picked several wealthy businessmen with deep Wall Street ties into his Cabinet, sparking criticism that he didn't deliver his campaign promise to "drain the swamp" of powerful interests in Washington.

The National Economic Council was created by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993 and has become the most important economic-policymaking body in the White House.

source: Xinhua